Catch Me When I Fall
by whatever.you.love
Summary: I have always been lively and clumsy, Hotaru has always been my best friend and Narumi has always dressed like a gay and it will never change. That's what I've been telling myself for 2 years since the plane crash. Full Summary inside, Enjoy!
1. My First Few Steps

In the midst of revising for 3 modules to be taken next week (!) I am writing a fanfic to keep me from insanity. Why I am writing a fanfic of all things and

why a week before exams, I have no clue. I'll probably end up kicking myself after spending forever on this.

I really do hope you enjoy, and thank you in advance for reading :D

One more thing, please remember to hit the review button just so that I know you've been and please tell me how I did!

Also, I would like to seriously apologise for the shortness of this chapter. 'Tis my grief and woe that it is so short...

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN GAKUEN ALICE (Just don't come running at me that I've plagiarised or something...)

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><p><strong>Summary:<strong>

I have always been lively and clumsy, Hotaru has always been my best friend and Narumi has always dressed like a gay and it will never change. That's what I've been telling myself for 2 years since the plane crash.

Mikan was involved in a tragic plane crash which had killed both her parents. Her life is now back to normal, or how it should be: a special star girl who seems to have everything, apart from her memories. As she tries to piece her life back together, she discovers new things that she had never known before. Was her past really how she thinks that it will be? And who is this jerk who keeps on making her life living hell?

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

**My First Steps**

Hotaru has always been my bestest bestest friend, Ruka has always been shy and has always liked me, and Mr. Bear has always been alive. Tsubasa-sempai has always been my most cherished sempai, Tono-sempai has always been a pervert, Narumi-sensei has always dressed like a gay and I've always been lively and clumsy and it will never change. Well, that's what I've heard form everyone.

That's what I've been telling myself for 2 years since the plane crash.

My mother and father died in that very plane crash to America.

We were going on our annual holiday that Alice Academy had allocated for us. Although, it is a bit weird how nobody else goes on holidays anymore.

Narumi sensei said that because of me and the dangers of these kinds of happenings, the school has prohibited school holidays, but no one seems bothered.

I can't even find photos of me and my parents. Maybe we weren't such a happy family.

People all say to me that I've changed a little after the crash.

What would you think? I've lost my parents in a plane crash that only I've survived in and I am now pretending who I have always been.

I force a smile and grin and say,

'Maybe when I get all my memories back, I'll be my usual self again.'

Hotaru has refused to build a machine to bring back all my memories, although everyone reckons she could, easily. She probably has a valid excuse to not build one. You can't hold anything against her really.

'Today is a fresh new start, a new day' was what I told myself.

I wondered what events would happen today as I washed and dressed in my special star room, right above Hotaru's. I looked out to my favourite tree of all time, the Sakura tree that was constantly blossoming all year round.

I reached for the chain around my neck and looked at the crimson pendant hanging from it.

I truly hoped that maybe today would be one step closer to regaining my memories. I wanted them back - but I couldn't force them back, it would worsen my condition.

I slid down the drain pipes to get into Hotaru's room from the window – only to find that my face had collided into the cold, bulletproof glass.

'HOTARUUU! OPEN UP!' I cried, banging on her.. really, really hard glass.

Hotaru stepped aside and explained her newest invention to somebody.

'Mikan-prevention glass No.4. A glass made from a mix of esters and carboxylic acid and soda lime in a ratio of 3:7. Although it is not as clear as normal glass, even Mikan's rock head cannot shatter this glass.'

'HOTARU!' I screamed at her again. A crowd was gathering at the ground, looking up at this girl gangling off a drainpipe.

Get used to it already! It's not like this is the hundredth and thirty seventh time that this is happening to me or anything.

The she-devil finally opened the window to create a microscopic opening. The skill that had accumulated for the past 2 years had somehow got me into her room again. I heard applause from the base of the building. Disorientated, I peered round the corner to see Hotaru fuming again. She grunted a little,

'If you don't clean this mess up I will personally strangle you then cut you up into little pieces'

I ran into the classroom, late, as always. As always, Hotaru had made me clean up her failed invention with a swollen bump on my head and flew off.

Thankfully, it had turned out that it was a supervised study period and Narumi-sensei had already taken his leave.

I walked casually, greeting classmates, to my usual seat at the back of the classroom.

As I walked to the ever-so-far-away seat, I saw a mother's tea meeting being held on a table. I joined in, and listened in.

'But, Natsume-san was-' A girl started,

'Shhhhhh!' She was interrupted by another who had just noticed me. The first girl quickly covered her mouth and greeted me good morning. I smiled sweetly back and replied back,

'Morning! What's the gossip today?' The girls looked around sheepishly and answered that there was no gossip at all.

Disappointed, I trudged back to my seat, next to Ruka.

'Sakura-san, you're late again' he told me.

'Ahaha, sorry, sorry! I won't be late tomorrow, promise.' I replied

The blonde boy turned back to the front and started playing with his bunny.

Natsume, a name that popped up everywhere I went. It was the name that I still hadn't had a clue about. I had found out that he was a good looking lad who had a personality of Satan.

He had left to go to London. He was Ruka's best friend and he sat in my seat before.

That was about it.

Any news of him was hush hush. Who the hell was this Natsume person? I remembered that every time somebody talked about him, whether it was a boy or a girl had eyes of adoration. It seemed that he was well-loved throughout the school.

As I sat, pondering, two hours flew by. Time flies when you're having fun I ridiculed.

It was lunch then lessons then ability training time.

I reckoned that today was nothing special, just like other days. However, I loved my time spent with the Special Ability people. I mean, we call ourselves the good-for-nothing group of children, but in all honesty, it was my sanctuary.

Nobody tried to avoid topics because of me and my circumstances and we all had fun.

I jumped into the classroom, where Tsubasa-sempai and Misaki-sempai were waiting for me.

'HI MIKAN-CHAN!' they both screamed and ushered me in. Mr. Bear gave handed me a cup of tea and a slice of cake, as weird as it sounds… they all started digging in.

Not into the food, into my life.

Not that I minded, of course. They were one of the only people I could trust nowadays. As I explained that none of my memories were even hinting that they were coming back, they sympathetically nodded in response and reminded me for the thousandth time that they were here for me.

They were genuinely worried for me, I could see. They said that they didn't mind whatever I turned out like, or however I acted, they would support me through the way. Even Mr. Bear was placing his fluffy paw onto his left chest.

Since Nodacchi-sensei wasn't here, surprise surprise, the classroom was in chaos.

Us Special ability people were, well, regarded as special so nobody really came to shut us up.

Nobody could, our motto, "Be free" was exactly the reason why.

Halfway through eating and partying, A boy… Or was it a girl? Anyway, this person with stripy leggings – ok, it was a girl then – with a head of a pig slammed the door open and screamed.

'EVERYONE! LISTEN!' We unanimously froze, dropped everything and huddled over in front of the person with a head of a pig.

'Hyuuga Natsume is coming back tomorrow!' I looked around and saw that everyone's jaw had dropped straight to the floor.

Hyuuga… Natsume? Where had I heard that name before?

'Lighten up, kid, maybe you'll get your memories back after all,' Tsubasa-sempai said to me whilst ruffling up my hair.

'Sempai! You messed up my hair!' I scolded him, and stood on his toe.

'Ah, sorry, midget. Forgot that you were grown up now! Haha' He casually replied.

The bell rang and it was the end of the day.

Hyuuga Natsume… I remembered. He was the famous boy who went to London. The boy who was Ruka's best friend, the boy who made everyone's eyes shine, the boy who's name had been a secret, until now. Why would he help me to get my memories back? I hoped I would get along with him.

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><p>TBC<p>

Authors Note:

I apologise again for the shortness of this chapter, more of a prologue than a full chapter. It makes me so sad to see the length of the scroll bar!

It will be longer next time!

Anyway, so? How was it? Hehe

BTW I have no idea on how to make bulletproof glass.. that was me mixing up things…

Please leave a review.

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Just say hi or something…

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love

-j

xXx


	2. A Few More Steps

**Catch Me When I Fall**

**.  
><strong>

Hello!

Thank you to those who alerted and reviewed my story! MOTIVATION! Hahaha

May I add, this is not an alternate universe at all; it is just what I imagined could happen in a million years!

Anyway I will update this story as soon as possible!

However, I am also going back to school day after tomorrow, so the next update may be a little late. Please bear with me! I'll try my best!

It is a little longer this time, and I really hope you enjoy!

Please remember that this is rated T and contains T-rated language.

.

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><p>Disclaimer: I do not own GA.<p>

Happy now?

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><p><span>Summary:<span>

Mikan was involved in a tragic plane crash which had killed both her parents. Her life is now back to normal, or how it should be: a special star girl who seems to have everything, apart from her memories. As she tries to piece her life back together, she discovers new things that she had never known before. Was her past really how she thinks that it will be? And who is this jerk who keeps on making her life living hell?

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 <strong>

**.  
><strong>

**A Few More Steps**

**.  
><strong>

'_GET BACK! NOW' I looked around. Violent shudders raked through my body over and over again._

_Huge men in black suits were running after me. I looked back and saw a tall boy with his back to me. It was dark and I couldn't register anything that I saw._

_It was like this world was made out of shadows. _

_He repeated himself once more._

'_I'm NOT LEAVING YOU, IDIOT!' I screamed back. _

_These men were frighteningly dangerous._

'_Polka, I'm not putting up with this anymore. GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!' _

_My heart plunged down inside me. The boy was screaming at me to get away when I was trying to help him. He has a few issues. What was with him? Why the hell was he swearing at me? And did he just call me… Polka? _

'_You can't beat these guys on your own, moron, let me help you!' I could hear myself shout out with all my might. Constant screams came from my lips as I watched the boy in front of me get beaten up, pretty badly. Fire spewed out uncontrollably from his hands and around him._

_What was he DOING? Burning these men to crisp? The fire lit up the whole site but I still couldn't see anything properly. My vision was blurring and the smoke was strangling me alive. I felt a stream flow down across my cheek, and soon, the stream flowed into a river of tears. _

'_WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?' He screamed once more and added, 'IT'S NOT ME THEY WANT, IT'S YOU!' Want me for what? I wondered. I watched him, terrified. I looked at him more closely. In the midst of the fire, I could see him throwing and receiving punches and kicks. On his ear, a cartilage piercing glistened in the light more brightly than others. A dragon pattern was embossed on it. _

_He was getting overpowered. It was 10 against one, and they still had more._

_A strange pulling sensation overcame my conscience. _

_I had to be next to him. _

_Beside him._

'_I WON'T LEAVE YOU,' was my reply_

_I needed to help him. I sprinted forward into the raging fire and joined in the best I could. The fire didn't harm me, of course, I had the nullification alice._

'_MIKAN, GO AWAY' He cried again._

_All I had to do was touch these people for 3 seconds and they were powerless._

_If only I could see my self, a monster. A life-sucking leech. _

_What was left behind in my hand were huge, differently coloured alice stones. _

_What was I doing with these alice stones?_

_I unintentionally reached up to my neck to the chain and it was attached onto it. _

_The mens' faces were cold and emotionless. _

_Fearsome because they were so.. mechanical._

_I took a fully loaded blow to my stomach and was left winded and bruised. Another man came up from behind me and intuition told me that it must be the end of my life. _

_Layers of millions of shadow cast from the dancing fire showed a gargantuan man holding up a baseball club._

_It slowed down from there onwards. One frame per second. The baseball bat inched closer and closer to my head. The pain in my stomach was worsening by the second, and worst of all, I couldn't do anything to help the raven haired boy. _

_I heard him scream. _

_Pain._

_Red._

_._

_White._

_.  
><em>

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><p>.<p>

I jolted awake to a ridiculous amount of noise in the dorm. It then dawned on me that I was drenched in sweat and panting. My fringe was plastered onto my forehead and my hair was in shambles.

Not that dream again.

I decided that I had been reading too many mangas and compromised to myself that I would only read 17 shounen mangas instead of the normal 70 and only 20 shoujo ones instead of the normal... However many I read.

Although it seemed that the shoujo ones didn't inspire good fluffy storylines. I struggled to remember what the boy in my dream had called me…

What was it?

In any case, it was an off-putting and personally offensive name.

.

If only the dream was from the mangas that I read. It wasn't really from the monstrous number of mangas I'd read.

I had dreamt that dream for the past 2 years.

It woke me up during the night most of the time.

Such a horrific dream

I suffered from insomnia for a while, seeing as the dream prevented me from even closing my eyes at night.

My worst nightmare.

The worst thing was that it felt too real to be a dream; too detailed and it brought out too much of my own emotions to be a dream. Some days, I would wake up with tears streaming.

I hadn't had that dream in months.  
>Just as soon as I thought that I was free from its clutches, it haunted me again. Days like these were my worst.<p>

I rolled out of the bed and opened the room window to let some fresh air in. I gathered my uniform and underwear and trudged into the shower.

'Ahh! So nice and clean and refreshed and sof-'

'AHHHHHHH!' A piercing scream interrupted my train of thought. What was going ON?

I ran to the door to open it until I heard a stampede coming along, together with a huge amount of noise pollution.

These girls were getting hysterical!

The special star room was supposed to be SOUND-PROOF! I listened at the door, terrified of my ears splitting if I opened it. There was only one word and only one name that was repeated thoughout.

"NATSUME-SAMA'S COMING TODAY!"

The news had gotten out, and everyone was minutely pleased about this, apparently.

I looked out the window and the once cerulean sky had turned grey and cloudy. It had started to pour down. I ran over to close my window and prevent any rain from coming into my room.

Who was he? Why did everyone care so much? I pondered again and stepped back further into my room to get ready.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

For once, darling Hotaru didn't lock her window and so I was on time to school.

Well, almost.

I was soaked to the bone.

I was sprinting as fast as my legs could carry me to the classroom. The rain was still falling as hard as ever. I had somehow left half of my hair still congealed in shampoo and I had only noticed as I was walking out of the dorm.

What was the time?

I ran underneath a roof to temporarily escape the pouring rain.

At that moment, I saw a tall young boy with black hair stride past and turn the corner of a building. He was wearing our uniform.

If he was wearing out uniform, he was late too.

How could he be so casual when lessons had probably started?

'Excuse me?' I shouted after him… and subsequently got ignored.

'Excuse Me? Do you know the time?' I asked, and was ignored once again.

Deaf people nowadays, I thought to myself.

Oh, gosh, I was thinking more and more like Hotaru! This was a bad sign and when I came to my senses, I found myself screaming out,

'Ahh! I LOVE DEAF PEOPLE! YAY!'

He turned another corner. Dammit, why did he walk so fast?

Shoes squelching with every step I took, I chased after him, seeing as our classroom was in the same direction. I saw something gleam on his ear as a lightning struck.

He had a piercing?

I called out to him once more. I was really in trouble if I arrived late! Ruka-pyon would be so disappointed!

I caught sight of the piercing again and saw that it was around an inch long and was gold. It looked all-too-familiar, just where was it from? I couldn't determine whether it was real or fake, but it was a cartilage piercing that caught my attention the most.

Suddenly, I felt nauseous.

The floor underneath me gradually turned into a constantly changing kaleidoscope.

Round and round and round and round.

I grabbed hold of the nearest wall and steadied myself.

Taking a deep breath, I took another step.

I thought through what had just happened to me and further back.

I was chasing a boy to ask for the time, he had piercings and out of them the gold one really looked familiar…

Wait.

He had MORE PIERCINGS?

He then turned towards the main reception instead of the school.

What. A. Rebel!

After deciding that he was most definitely gay with so many piercings, I was in a trance until I found myself staring at the door of our classroom.

I smoothed out my blue checkered skirt, tugged at my collar and ribbon wringing everything that I could get my hands on.

My smile in check and my ponytail tightened, I was ready for another day.

I slammed the door open only to find that Narumi-sensei hadn't arrived just yet. Counting my lucky stars, I made a beeline towards my seat.

'See, Ruka-pyon? I am ON TIME! Yay!' I obnoxiously shouted at him, like the girl that I was before.

Ruka looked at me and smiled the faintest smile and murmured a 'well done' and turned back to the front of the classroom. A slight scowl was etched onto his flawless face.

Narumi-sensei arrived a split-second later

'My beautiful class~ The famous Hyuuga-san has arrived! Remember?' Narumi-sensei sang out to us, even he was happier than usual.

Just who was this person who made everyone so happy?

.

Tall, Raven hair, scarlet eyes, constant scowl, bored to death facial expression.

Overall impression: A devil.

.

As the majority of the girls in my class squealed, I was lost.

How could this devil be so loved?

All he needed was a pitchfork and those red horns; that would have completed the look. Narumi-sensei told him gently that he could sit wherever he wanted.

Hence, here he was trudging along to sit in between me and Ruka.

I had reached out my hand to formally shake hands, and introduce myself,

'Hi, I'm Mikan.' He replied to my civil introduction with:

'I know, you moron.'

Inside, I was burning up. Inside, I would have loved to hit him, but obviously, a civil person such as I would never have done so. Mumbling indecent words sufficed for me, and I turned haughtily back to the front of the classroom.

I felt a sudden nausea gnawing at the entrance of my stomach. Bile was rising up my throat and whilst trying to force it down, I felt even sicker.

My blurred vision allowed me to see Hotaru run towards me worriedly. Her face up close to mine, she gently asked me if I was doing alright.

I muttered a little 'yes' while my head was about to burst from the pain that had crept up.

Breathing became a difficulty. I felt as it the pressure in my lungs had suddenly dropped and that they were imploding. As I gasped for air, I felt cool hands firmly grab my numb arms.

I forced my eyes open and saw six Hotarus. I looked around and the dizziness hit me like a train at full speed. After failing to stand up a hundred times, I grabbed the desk and shakily pulled myself up, eyes closed.

A shudder raked through my body and flailing my arms around, I hit the cold ground with a small thud.  
>I could hear people calling my name over and over, and all I could reply with was nothing.<p>

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~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

Groggily, I opened my heavy eyelids and breathed in some fresh air.

I realised then that the air around me smelt of disinfectant together with cleaning liquid and all around me was… well… white. I felt that I had dry clothes on and my drenched uniform was hanging next to the radiator.

I bolted upright only to be grabbed by the back of my shirt and thrown back down onto the bed.

I looked across and saw Mr. I'm-so-high-and-mighty-Hyuuga.

'That's not how you treat an ill person,' I glowered at him

'That's how I treat everyone.' He retorted and went back to reading a manga.

His hair was damp and his blazer too was hanging next to the radiator.

I observed him closely and realised that he had quite a long fringe and bright crimson eyes. To be honest, he looked like a girl with all his dainty facial features. He had piercings on both his ears, one of them being the gold cartilage piercing that I had noticed earlier. Figuring out that the jerk who ignored me was him, I examined the gold earring once more.

It had a dragon engraved on it. Simple but detailed. I wondered what it was for.

He lowered his manga and glared down at me.

'Problem, stripey?'

I instantly looked away, stammering 'N-n-no?'

I couldn't remember how I got here. I remembered feeling bad and sick, then the next thing I knew, I was here, with jerk-face looking after me.

Then I realised that Jerk-face was here…

Looking. After. Me.

'AHHH! What are you doing?' I screamed at him and pointed my finger at his face.

He looked up and scowled and looked back down. After about 20 seconds, he replied,

'Reading a manga, what does it look like?'

'I didn't mean what were you doing, I meant what are you doing… now?'

He glared at me once more, and once more I confirmed the devilish aura that he was emitting was much too devil-like to be real.

'Are you… looking after me?' I stuttered, painfully waiting for an answer.

'No.' came his blunt reply. He obviously was, I mean, why else was he here, reading a manga, looking bored?

'Did you carry me here from the classroom?' I asked

'No.'

'…Oh,' I replied. Whatever, if he wanted to be weird, he could be. 'Thank you…' I said, with a slight smile tugging at the corners of my lips.

I looked out the window as the thunder and lightning struck again. The rain was falling harder than ever.

I pulled the blanket up to my face and closed my eyes to fall back asleep.

I was thinking what a waste of this day was today. It was miserable and raining.

I was planning to go out to central town with Hotaru today, even if I had to pay her 5 million rabbits or something ridiculous like that. Seeing as I was a special star, I had more than enough money to spend on her demands and my fluffy Howalons.

I drooled even at the thought of them.

Come to think of it, Jerk over here was a special star too.

Although I reckon that I was only put as a special star because of my uncle, they were supposed to be some kind of amazing people or something. Seeing as Hotaru wasn't even a special star, I was really confused at why Jerk-face and I were the only special star people in the whole of Middle School.

I was really intrigued by him all of a sudden. Acting like a Jerk and all, thinking that he was so high and mighty that he couldn't even introduce himself like any other normal being and calling me Stripey, but carrying me all the way here after I fainted. We'd only just met…

Were we friends before?

My clothes weren't stripey.

A few seconds passed.

'DID YOU JUST CALL ME STRIPEY?' I screamed,

'Hn.' He grunted at me.

'Y-Y-YOU PERVERT!' I screamed once more and started crying.

'Shut up, Polka, you're too loud,'

'My innocence is taken…' I cried and sulked a little more. After I had calmed down and settled back into bed, I heard him close his manga and place it on the beside table. I then felt him stand up and stretch and put his blazer back on. He strode to the door and said,

'Anyway, it's not my fault that you fall awkwardly when you faint.' And with that, he shut the door before I could throw the flower vase at him.

What a bastard.

Where the hell did Polka come from now?

I looked on my beside table to find that my classmates had written get well cards. Touched, I lay back down.

Then I noticed that the manga was still on the table.

I opened it and on the first page was the letters MS.

THAT JERK!

After a good few minutes of agonizing over the best possible way of making his life miserable, and making my new favourite insulting word jerk, I finally succumbed to the sleep that I had to catch up on.

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~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

Outside, a tall figure watched Mikan slowly close her eyes and drift off to sleep with the manga still in her hands. She was still the same Mikan, just without her memories.

All would be well without them, he thought.

How she hadn't changed from the naïve girl he had once felt such strong emotions for.

Although, it bothered him greatly to see that he had to sit through all of her crying phases again.

But he wouldn't be the cause of her sadness, grief or loneliness this time.

Never again, he thought and with a sad smile lingering on his handsome face, the boy retreated without a sound.

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><p>Tbc<p>

Although still not as long as I would have liked, if I had continued, Chapter 3 would have been so boring.

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><p>.<p>

**Chapter 3: Skip-Hopping**

'Why did you save me?'

'Do you need a reason to save someone from getting raped?'

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><p>.<p>

Please review, if you are an author yourself, you would know the desperateness of this plea.

A bientot!


	3. Skip Hopping

WHY THE FUCK DID FANFICTION REFUSE TO LET ME SIGN IN?

Sorry for the delay. Ew.

I hate it when things get delayed. Teachers, FFn, internet, bunch of other stuff, but they are pretty lame excuses, so SOORRRRYY!

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><p>Thank you to those who alerted, favourited and reviewed my story, you lovely lovely people!<p>

**Shimmerinq,** writing at school is actually quite useful!** Czeselle, Crimson-angel1447, Kittycatlysanne, RudRubyS.C, Pikacheery14, Alisther, Fantasychick13, nikkisoo, PassionInWriting** who makes me feel so good about myself :P, **Czeselle**, although a new face (?) calmed me down with two more reviews , and last but not least, **Princess Mei Mikan** who's just being herself :D

These reviews and alerts mean so much to me!

**Thank you so much!** (Hyperventilating at the moment…)

I also apologise profusely for the not very early update! These teachers are going crazy with prep and its parent's evening next week and music competition, art killing me and just. Ew.

Good news though, my exams have finished (for now)! So hopefully, I'll be able to update more frequently.

I didn't want to move the plot insanely quickly, so I had to come up with something that doesn't foreshadow too much! Ahaha lets see if you can read between _these_ lines!

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Please remember that this is rated T and contains T-rated language.

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* * *

><p><span>Disclaimer<span>: I do not own GA.

I live in this dream where I imagine that I do.

It makes me happy…

.

* * *

><p><span>Summary:<span>

Mikan was involved in a tragic plane crash which had killed both her parents. Her life is now back to normal, or how it should be: a special star girl who seems to have everything, apart from her memories. As she tries to piece her life back together, she discovers new things that she had never known before. Was her past really how she thinks that it will be? And who is this jerk who keeps on making her life living hell?

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

'Why did you save me?'

'Do you need a reason to save someone from getting raped?'

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* * *

><p>.<p>

**Chapter 3 **

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**Skip-Hopping**

**.**

'_You can't beat these guys on your own, moron, let me help you!' Fire spewed out uncontrollably from his hands and around him._

_My vision was blurring and the smoke licked the back of my throat. _

'_WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? IT'S NOT ME THEY WANT, IT'S YOU!' _

_The cartilage piercing gleamed again. The dragon pattern that was embossed imprinted on my mind. _

_Next thing I knew, I was beside him._

'_I WON'T LEAVE YOU,' _

'_MIKAN, GO AWAY' _

_The mens' faces were still as cold and emotionless as the countless times before. _

_I took a fully loaded blow to my stomach once more. The same man came up from behind me and I knew that it must be the end of my dream again. _

_The baseball club came for me._

_It slowed down as the baseball bat inched closer and closer to my head. I couldn't do anything to help him. Again._

_I heard him scream. _

_Pain._

_Red._

_._

_White._

* * *

><p>I woke with a start.<p>

I was drenched and soaked in sweat.

Although it was a dream, I couldn't do anything to stop the actions that I took nor could I run off with the boy or dodge the punch.

I thought that you could control your dreams!

I made a mental note to find somebody who could help me.

Looking out to the Sakura Tree, I saw a pair of legs clad in blue-checker trousers swinging to and fro on one of the branches that reached out.

I wondered who it was who was sitting in my favourite spot.

Nobody else touched that tree, it was as if it was cursed or something, but of course it was not cursed! Nothing bad has ever happened to me and I doubt it ever will.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

It turned out that I was fine. It had been a few days since I had fainted and so far, it was good and there were no more signs of me fainting. Apparently, I was just a little tired. I got on with my normal life with or without that jerk. He never really seemed to be in school, though.

Well, to be honest, I am still as confuddled and dumbfounded as ever as to why Hyuuga-face stayed with me.

I wondered if we were friends before the crash.

I was really, really, really curious.

I waked into the classroom, just slightly late as usual.

Only fifteen minutes.

Jin-Jin stomped into the classroom and the clusters of people scampered away at the speed of light, as did I.

However, in my seat, I found Jerk-face's _feet_.

'Errmmm, Hyuuga, I think you'd find that your feet are sitting in my place?' In return, I was glared at and completely ignored.

'Excuse me, Hyuuga-san; your smelly feet are in _my_ seat. Jerkface, get it _off_'' I managed to stutter out. He stared up at me, sighed and jumped off the seat and walked away… out of the door, away, away… and further away.

WHAT?

At this point, half of the class were sighing in awe of how 'cool' Hyuuga was.

What was wrong with him?

What a JERK!

How. On EARTH does he receive so much love from everyone when he was so mean?

I was genuinely flaming up, and I prepared myself mentally to scream a string of curses after him, only to find Jin-Jin towering over me with a murderous aura emitting from him.

'Sakura-san, I suggest you sit down and stay quiet before you get into any more trouble.' He said through clenched teeth.

Woah. Stressy much?

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

'And so the co-efficient of x squared would therefore be…'

Algebra was and still is the bane of my existence. Why there were little tiny numbers that were brought down and stuff, I just don't understand. Who the hell came up with these things anyway?

Bored as ever, I whipped out my phone and punched in Hotaru's number and typed:

_Hotaruuu~ Can we PLEASE go into Central Town? PLEASE? PLEASEEEE? xxxxxx_

A few milliseconds later, she replied:

_No. Unless you pay me. Now go away, we're in a lesson._

No kisses, no nothing. Truly, she was a demon. As I sat behind her sulking, my phone buzzed again:

_Fine, now pay me 5000 rabbits for making me waste my time_

Well, still no kisses, but we were getting somewhere, I guess.

Mid-texting, I had noticed that a total eclipse had occurred. My surroundings darkened.

My head creaked up in fear…

'Sakura-san, hand me the phone, and see you in detention after school.' Jin-Jin said.

Jeez! He was some chief MONG, no joke.

I handed a phone in reluctantly and cowered away in fear as he realised it was my spare one.

'Your REAL phone, Sakura,' He spat. Christ, I hated it when past Mikan was such an idiot! Why on EARTH did she buy a Sailor Moon toy phone as a replacement for these situations? Wow. What a complete and utter retard.

Holding back my tears, I managed to hand my phone to him and watched dejectedly as it dangled from his hands as he walked away.

So now, thanks to Jin-Jin. I was left with no phone.

And a detention.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

Time passed lazily, and a few years later, I found that it was the end of lessons. Suddenly full of energy, I screamed at Hotaru to hurry the hell up so that we could go into Central Town.

'You have a detention, dummy' She pointed out calmly.

'Oh my GOD, no way.' I had forgotten. And so, we said that I was to meet her, Anna and Nonoko at 6.30 in front of 'The Goldsmith's'.

An hour crawled by, and finally, it was all over.

It was HOWALON TIME!

Rejoicing, I made my way back to our dorm to get changed and ready for the outing that I had been so excited for. However, on the way there, I abruptly stopped my hallelujahs when I saw a pair of legs dangling from the Sakura tree again. I made my way up to the little hill that the lone Sakura tree was.

'Excuse me?' I called up. I thought that it was the same person as I had seen today, though he was much bigger in person.

There was no reply, so I called out again.

Once again, there was no reply.

Now, this boy was a tiny bit RUDE. I coughed and screamed up at him,

'HELLO CAN YOU NOT HEAR ME?'

'You're too loud, little girl.' Came a male voice. Deep and husky.

'May I ask what you're doing here? Nobody comes here.'

'And?' He replied.

'I'm just intrigued, that's all.' I replied as calmly as I could. How rude this boy was.

'I like it up here,' He said, 'my favourite spot,'

'Really? Same! Buuuut as much as I would LOVE to talk to you right now, I have to go!' I said as I bolted off, not bothering to wait for a reply.

When I arrived at my room, I looked out to the tree, and he had disappeared.

Who was here? He was a bit of a jerk, now wasn't he?

I waved the thought of another jerk away and I got ready immediately and sprinted out of the room to catch the next bus to Central Town.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

I waited outside 'The Gold Smiths'. It was quite a nice café I must admit!

I had been waiting for around 20 minutes, but Hotaru hadn't shown her butt up. We'd agreed to meet up at 6.30, it was now 6.50 and it was getting quite dark.

I STILL hadn't bought my howalons either! I had come prepared today for 300 boxes to be delivered and all. My howalon '3 for 2' voucher ready as well.

What a bummer.

Since Jin-Jin refused to return my phone, I had to dash out so that I was on time.

Yet here I was, waiting for them to come.

This was definitely Mikan abuse.

I looked inside, outside, around and around but there was no sign of them anywhere!

Dejected, I started walking to the howalon stand. As I trudged through the masses of people, I saw through an alleyway a direct shortcut. Pushing and shoving my way past the crowd, I ended up at the entrance of a gloomy alleyway.

The sun had hidden its face away and flickered as the night settled in comfortably.

The alleyway was not inviting, but at the end of it, I saw the glowing stand, and I decided to make it quick.

I started to take huge strides to escape from the dark, narrow path, holding my breath. I was halfway there, when I heard a few people snickering in the corner of the darkness.

I snapped my head around and more snickering bounced off from every direction. My head was echoing with unfamiliar voices,

'Hey there, little lady?'

'What are you doing here, all alone?'

'Wanna come and play with us?'

I knew this was a bad idea.

I saw a hand shoot out from the darkness into the dim light and stroke m hair.

'Ermm, excuse me, I have somewhere to go…' I protested

'No, I think you can stay for a while, don't you? What do you think?' A voice called out to the rest and there was a murmur of appreciation.

'No! I can't I'm sorry,' I said, and I pulled my hair out from his grasp and stumbled forward…

Only to be caught by one of his comrades. He emitted out a stench of alcohol, sweat and cigarettes. He slid his hands around my waist and whispered,

'Come on, little girl, you know you want to.' His terrible breath suffocated me as he tightened his grip on my waist.

Someone else came up from behind and slowly started to lift up my skirt. Inch by inch…

Panic strangled my throat.

My voice… was… stuck!

I clenched my fists and started to struggle back. It was a bad idea. The more I struggled, the more the men groped and grabbed me.  
>Slimy hands touched the top of my legs and started to tease the fabric of my knickers, I tried to scream once again, yet my voice still did not come out.<p>

Fuck.

The men started to stroke and leave behind forceful marks everywhere on my body.

'Little girl, stop resisting,' an angry voice came.

'S… S… Stop, please' I managed to muster out.

Huge guffaws sounded from around me; of course that puny statement would get me nowhere.

'STOP!' I screamed. I was met with rough hands covering my mouth hatefully.

The men started to get restless and ripped my shirt open and through away ripped shreds.

SHIT! SOMEBODY HELP ME! I cried aloud in my head.

I opened my mouth just about wide enough to scream, when rough, unknown lips met mine in a frenzied, drunk violence.

Hands were roaming around on my body.

The hair on my spine pricked up. Shudders shook from head to toe.

This was disgusting.

Not even disgusting, it was terrifying.

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I resisted the men.

God help me.

They tossed me around like some hot potato, taking a bite out of me every time I was passed on. Some couldn't even catch me, and I was thrown to the ground, my whole body ached from the impact. They would pick my up like a rag doll, and throw me around once again.

Their own funny game.

They cackled at my tears, they snickered at my whimpers, they laughed at my cried of help.

Suddenly, the men stopped laughing and pushed me aside, with one person still gripping my wrists as if I was some mad dog.

'You fucking perverts, get the fuck out of here,'

Oh shit, another gang.

What had I done wrong? Why did I deserve this?

'You little midget, what do you think you can do?' one of the drunk men sneered.

'I can kick your ugly ass, that's what I can do,' He replied.

This was my chance. I tried to scramble away as the man who was gripping me had loosened his chains.

'Ahhhh, no, little girl, we're not finished with you yet..' He said.

Punches and kicks were exchanged. Groans of pain and anger resounded along the alleyway.

From what it sounded like, it was only one person against around 7 or 8.

Thump.

Groan.

Bam.

Slap.

Scream.

It finally reached the man that I was with. He was down in seconds.

Who was this guy?

He bent down and hoisted me up onto his shoulder. By this time, I was in full defensive mode.

I bit him, scratched him and did whatever I could.

'KIDNAP! HELP! HELLPP!' I screamed out. I was getting further and further away from the light.

'HELP!'

We entered the safety of the light, but before I could scream any more, the person suddenly threw me down and barked,

'What the FUCK is wrong with you, polka?'

Polka?

There was only one person who called me that, and that was..

'JERKFACE?' I exclaimed, gobsmacked. 'What are you doing here?'

'Can I not come into Central Town now?'

'Ermm, no that's not what I meant,' I tried to cover up.

Why the HELL was he here?

Why on earth did he _save_ me?

Why on earth did _he_ save me?

Wow. The apocalypse was nigh.

Unable to keep my mouth shut, I asked,

'Why did you save me?'

He looked at me as if I was demented.

'Do you need a reason to save someone from getting raped?'

Err, well… no was the answer.

'Ermm, well, thank you… and sorry for the bother.' I declared. I had already made a fool out of myself too much.

He grabbed my wrist as I turned away from him.

I swivelled around, and found myself too close from Jerkface for liking.

'What?' I asked. What was this, some kind of romantic moment in Shoujo Manga?

'You're flat chest is showing for the whole world to see.'

OH MY GOD, I JUST REALISED.

As I sat there, bawling my eyes out, i felt a jumper land on my shoulders.

'Wear it,' he mumbled.

'Did jerkface just offer me his jumper?' I thought out loud.

He snapped his head around.

'Its not going to be on offer if you're just going to complain like that,' he snapped.

'NO! No, no. I'm fine.' I replied hurriedly.

I took it and put it on quickly. It smelt so… nice.

Jerkface started to walk away, his hands shoved deep into his pockets.

'Hey, Hyuuga!' He stopped.

'Thank you…' I said quietly and he carried on walking.

I looked around, and over by the howalon stall, I saw Anna and Nonoko looking worried and Hotaru looking pissed as usual.

I looked in the mirror, covered the bruises that were forming with dollops of foundation and walked up to them brightly, despite the pain in my limbs.

'Where were you, baka?' Hotaru asked quietly, looking at my bruise on my leg.

'I lost my way, then I tripped… took me a while to get up, sorry to keep you waiting for so long!'

'Oh, no we weren't waiting. We just arrived.' Hotaru brushed it off and started walking somewhere.

The rest of us all shrugged and followed her.

'To be honest, Mikan, she was the most worried out of all of us,' Anna whispered to me quietly.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

The next day, after pondering long and hard about Hyuuga, I ended on the hill of my Sakura tree.

Once again, the pair of legs were swinging back and forth.

'Hello?' I called

'…'

'Helloooo? I know you're there…'

'Hn. What?' he replied.

'Can I come up?' I asked him,

'No.'

'There is more than enough room for two up there, GOD.' I replied, exasperated. This boy was driving me nuts!

'Well, I don't want you here, so you can stay down there,'

What a jerk.

Mentioning jerk, where has he been? I wondered. All through this week up until today. It angered me so much that he was such a jerk AND be a special star AND never get into trouble.

Grr.

'Why do you not want me up there?' I questioned

'I have my own reasons,' he replied. What was with this whole mystery thing?

Oh well,

'Okay then, fine. I'll stay down here, and you stay up there. Not like that was my favourite spot or anything.' I stated sarcastically. Mehh, I didn't care all too much. 'Will you be coming here frequently then?' I asked

'I used to come here every day… ' He said.

'What do you mean used to? Why did you stop?' I asked further,

'Because a lot of things happened, and I just didn't want to come here any longer. But now lots of things have changed and I don't mind this place so much anymore.'

'That was the longest sentence you've said to me actually!' I pointed out, 'It's useless to ask why you didn't want to see this place anymore, right?' I asked

'Hn.' He grunted

'…..Ok… Well, can I know your name at least?'

'No.' I wasn't expecting anything in the first place.

'But that's weird, you can see who I am, but I can't see you?'

'Deal with it.' He said.

'Can I at least know what year* you're in?'

'I'm in your year'

'Oh, okay then. What class?'

'…'

'No?'

'…'

'Well. I am going to go and do some prep (*Homework) now. Nice talking to you!'

'Hn.' He replied again.

I darted for my room, and when I drew the curtains to look out to the Sakura Tree again, the legs were gone and… well. The tree was empty as ever, once again.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

Ugh, this bloke who keeps on stealing my Sakura branch and WILL not share.

God.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3 <strong>

**Tip-toeing**

.

'It's your fault that she's lost her memories, you know,'

'It's a good thing she did, I was the one who caused it… I take the blame,'

.

* * *

><p>*Year is grade in England. Sorry, I am stubborn and will not change my British way of spelling or words to match all you Americans out there! Hehe<p>

SO? Was it better? Did you fall asleep halfway?

Anyway, back to writing my English coursework…. Ugh.

Any of you guys have tips for learning French Essays word for word? :/ learning it parrot fashion is SO not working for me!

Anyway, back to things that you guys are actually interested in..

PLEASE REVIEW!

Hahaha

À Bientôt!


	4. Balancing on a Beam

Thank you to those new names who alerted, favourited and reviewed my story, you lovely lovely people!

**Xxkirbylover11xX, hirokeila, Narutogirl26, Roxii Like a Puma, Barajou no hoshi, MikanXNatsume1499, silent-1-piano, DAngelHime,**

PLEASE REVIEW!

I mean, I'm sure I'm doing well if Catch Me was favourited and alerted, but PLEASE just tell me your thoughts.

Please?

I know you guys are there…

**I ALSO APOLOGISE PROFUSELY FOR THE RIDICULOUSLY LATE UPDATE...**

**Yes, I am hanging my head in shame.  
><strong>

**I will not be updating within the next month, since its filled disgustingly with bloody exams.**

**Fuck that shit.  
><strong>

**Ugh  
><strong>

.

Please remember that this is rated T and contains T-rated language.

**.**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own GA.

I live in this dream where I imagine that I do.

It makes me happy…

.

* * *

><p><span>Summary:<span>

Mikan was involved in a tragic plane crash which had killed both her parents. Her life is now back to normal, or how it should be: a special star girl who seems to have everything, apart from her memories. As she tries to piece her life back together, she discovers new things that she had never known before. Was her past really how she thinks that it will be? And who is this jerk who keeps on making her life living hell?

.

* * *

><p><strong>.<strong>

**Chapter 4**

**Balancing on a Beam**

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* * *

><p>So, a few days passed and I was still wondering who the mysterious guy was.<p>

I mean, who did he think he was? Suddenly stealing my branch out of the blue and being selfish.

I wound up thinking about Hyuuga most of the time.

He had disappeared, and although people noticed, they didn't do anything about it.

What was that about?

He's so loved, yet no one even thought about looking for him.

When I asked Ruka, he gave a vague answer,

'Oh Natsume? He's probably sulking in his room or walking around the campus,'

Is that how a best friend acts about his missing friend? I dunno…

He saved me from being raped, so I reckoned he didn't mean well.

Maybe he had some kind of social disorder.

Poor him, he was born like that…

No what the hell was I thinking.

But really, there was something acutely wrong with this situation, and really, noone was bothering to even find out!

Definitely something wrong here.

Halfway through a normal school day plagued with thoughts and theories about the mysterious guy on my tree and fiddling with my pendant, Anna and Nonoko skipped up to me with smiles stretching from one ear to another.

'Mikan-chan! It's Iinchou's birthday in two days, and we're preparing a dorm party for him! Well, we're booking one of the music halls out so that we can have a celebration party with all our friends!' Nonoko explained,

'Please come! We'll have lots of fun, you've already attended many, but we were all too busy to arrange one after your accident,' Anna added.

'Sure guys, I'd love to come,' I answered back, 'Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help with the party! Really, though, I want to help,' I assured them after seeing their uncomfortable expressions.

'Fine, then Mikan-chan,' They chorused, 'we weren't supposed to let you help because this is technically your first dorm party that you remember,'

I laughed, 'Really guys? I could do with some helping out, seriously!'

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

Later that day, I was escorted to the music hall which was HUGE I have to say, and we started decorating the place. We called over all the special ability class people and made sure the hall was spotless and beautiful.

The party theme was 'Red, Black or White' so surprise surprise, the hall was covered in a red black and white pattern. It was actually sophisticated and lovely, considering we were a bunch of 16 year olds with strange abilities.

Everything calmed down a little as we were chilling and admiring our work.

I took a little sneak peek at the guest list and most were names I recognised easily.

Permy, Ruka, Hotaru, Pig-headed girl, Slit-eyes, Koko… the list went on.

I then came across the name that had been distracting me these past few days.

Hyuuga Natsume.

So he _was_ part of this crew…

Seriously though, why was I obsessing over him so much?

Ugh, this was NOT healthy.

Oh look! Even Tsubasa-sempai and Misaki-sempai had been invited. How lovely!

LETS CRANK THIS PARTAY UP!

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

The next two days passed ridiculously fast.

Because we were all so busy with the party preparations.

Anna and Nonoko restlessly came up to me every spare moment to apologise profusely for making me join in with preparing for this party. But even darling Hotaru was helping out…

If you call hiding away in a ball like sanctuary helping out…

We all headed back into our dorms to get ready, and me being the one with the biggest room obviously meant that I would have around two hundred girls pushing and shoving their way to my NARROW mirror. Geez, didn't they have a hand mirror of some sort?

One by one, they finished dolling themselves up and we posed for a picture and gathered at the foyer of the dorms and waited around for the boys to come. Nonoko was in charge of keeping Iinchou hanging around until everything was perfect.

All Iinchou knew was that he was going somewhere nice with Nonoko.

Little did he know he was being greeted by several people at that so called 'nice place'…

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

It was all Anna's doing.

She baked a number of walls of ginger bread biscuits and disguised the route to the music hall extremely well.

A little too well in fact, since all of us got lost halfway there.

Stupid gingerbread maze…

We hired a few waiters and we were picked to act like we were random people in a posh restaurant.

It was all cool and fine and dandy, until I was paired up with Hyuuga to act like some kind of love struck couple.

In all seriousness.

What the fuck.

Mr. Jerk was NOT sitting with me at a dinner for two table, acting or not.

Nooooo way in hell was I able to do that.

I would lose my patience within some ridiculously short period of time, giving this whole game away.

Nope.

No chance.

Well, that was until Anna gave me this if-you-don't-do-it-I-will-cry face (the puppy dog face, I suppose) .

We were typically assigned to the table right by Iinchou's, which was just my luck.

Hyuuga practically flopped onto the chair opposite me and started reading the menu.

Amused, I quietly sat down and opened up my own menu… which had no writing on.

What on earth was jerkface so interested in, on this blank menu?

Not being able to stand any kind of awkwardness, I initiated a conversation.

'Hey, where have you been the past few days?'

'…'

Eyebrows twitching, I asked again

'Why haven't you been in class?'

'…'

Right. That was it. WHO DID THIS GUY THINK HE WAS?

The son of God?

Even Jesus didn't ignore people.

I was about to lose it when I saw Nonoko and Iinchou walk in from the corner of my eye.

Shiiiiiit

'Darling, could you answer my question, please?'

I saw him smirk slightly and look up at me.

It only struck me then that he had the brightest crimson eyes and perfectly formed features. He could be what one would have called: good-looking.

If I didn't know him better, I would have thought he was a hottie.

Obviously that's what others thought of him.

'Wouldn't _you_ like to know,' he answered back in a mocking tone.

Offended and peeved by his remark, I quickly retorted that I did like to know, that was probably why I was asking him in the first place. Idiot.

'Why do you want to know?'

Err, because you've been missing days of classes when everyone else had to suffer?

'Fine then, I don't' I replied.

'Good,'

Oh wow, he was aggravating me to no end.

Why was he such a bitch?

I looked to the side and saw that everything was going well.

We even received unwanted food!

They went all out on this party, didn't they?

A signal came, the lights brightened, music burst out.

'HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IINCHOU!' We chorused, and the party started.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

Music blaring, no Hyuuga in sight and people slurring their words out due to the alcohol present, my head was pounding.

I fumbled outside, my vision hazy from the few drops of alcohol. I grabbed onto some kind of railing and chilled outside for a bit. Hotaru came up and sat next to me completely sober.

'Hey ugly,' she said.

'Hiiiii' I replied.

'You shouldn't drink… if a gulp of wine does that to you…'

Yes, when I said a few drops of alcohol, I meant it.

We stood there in comfortable and blissful silence.

'Hey, Hotaru?'

'Yes?'

'What was I like before the accident?'

'Why are you asking that now, dummy?'

'Because I'm just curious… What did I do? Am I the same now?'

'…' Hotaru remained silent.

'Oh, I'm not anything like my normal self, am I?'

'No, don't say that, stupid. It doesn't matter to us whether you're like your old self or not. You're Mikan Sakura, and everyone loves you.'

'Hyuuga doesn't…' I pouted.

'You'd be surprised,' she replied.

Just at that time, Iinchou came into the veranda and asked whether or not we'd seen Natsume. He was just about to make is birthday and thank you toast.

We hadn't, but Hotaru offered to look for him.

Let's rephrase that, Hotaru offered me up for looking for jerkface.

.

Groaning and moaning and hitting Hotaru out of spite, I found myself on the special star floor, calling out his name.

For the first time, I stood outside Hyuuga's room.

I took a deep breath in and promised myself to not lose control and start up yet another fight.

I stepped forward towards the door and raised my hand to knock on the door when I saw that Hyuuga had carelessly left his room door open.

Giggling slightly at his carelessness, I placed my hand on the doorknob.

That jerk, who was so self-righteous had left his door room OPEN!

Idiooot!

I was just about to open the door when I heard soft mumbles coming from inside of the room.

I leaned forward carefully to see who was in the room from the crack of Natsume's door.

Persona?

Persona had approached me a couple of times after my plane crash. Once to ask about my memory condition and another to ask if I remembered him or who my pendant came from.

Err, if I _had _remembered anything would I have been here struggling to remember anything?

And why would I have told that creepy man anyway?

He had unbrushed, long, unstyled hair and wore a mask at school. Otherwise, he had dark scars or marks around his eyes and long, black fingernails.

Hotaru had told me to stay away from him, and I had no double thoughts about doing so.

Apparently, he was the Elementary School Principle's puppet, another reason why I didn't want to acquaint myself with him.

But why was Persona in Hyuuga's room?

Was Hyuuga's ability also dangerous? I couldn't find out because... well, he was never actually in school, socialising with everyone else.

'Don't you dare lay a hand on her,' I heard Hyuuga's deep husky voice.

'I never said I would do anything to her, I just want to talk to her again,'

Who were they talking about?

'I fucking well went to London to stop you from taking her. You have already, you failed. Now let her go,' he said angrily, 'do you not remember the conditions of me going to London?'

'Of course I do,' Persona replied,

'Yeah, it was pay for my training there, not to lay a hand on her, and to keep what I did a secret from her. You're doing well so far, why would you break the contract?'

'The ESP is weakening, and we need her ability to prevent that.'

'Well, it's a nice thought, but no, you can't have her. Plus, I like that fact he's weakening.'

'I hope you haven't forgotten another part of your contract,' Persona suddenly darkened his tone, 'we said you go for 2 years, allow a week's recovery time when you get back and you go straight back to missions.'

Natsume cursed, 'Look, I'm doing my best to recover, it's not my fault my body's listening to me,'

'Well, if you can't get better in time, she'll just have to step in again, just like before. Do you not remember? That's what ultimately caused her to forget you that "tragic" night. When was that… Two years ago?' Persona taunted.

Two years ago? Wow, what a co-incidence, I thought.

'It's a good thing she did, I take the blame,' Natsume replied through gritted teeth.

'Are you sure? I mean, you're doing well to keep yourself from even befriending her again, but how my little Black Cat going to handle it?' He taunted Hyuuga further.

'Shut the fuck up,'

'Tch tch tch, now that really is not the way to behave towards somebody who has prevented your life from shortening.'

'Just kill me already then,'

How could he give his life up like that? I thought to myself. What is going on?

'No, no, no, I cannot give you the satisfaction, see. And Tsubasa's getting more tired and useless by the day,' Tsubasa-sempai? 'It was so valiant and nice of him to stand in for you and her, but really, one person cannot do all the work by himself, now can he?'

'Just get the fuck out of my room,'

'Not until you sign this.'

His voice was final and decisive. From my vision, I could only see a white sheet and a pen thrust towards Hyuuga. He begrudgingly signed it and added,

'Now get the fuck out of my room, you make me feel sick,'

'Enjoy yourself while you can,' Persona said, 'but keep in mind that once you disobey me, I will be using her.'

'Well, until then, you don't lay one of your filthy fucking fingers on her in any way,'

'Very well, get well, Black Cat,' Persona said and disappeared in a mist of black darkness.

When all traces of the mist had disappeared, I saw Hyuuga sigh and plonk himself down onto his bed. He buried his face into his palms and cursed softly.

He reached out to his bedside table and opened the second drawer. Out from it came five different pill cartons. He poured out one or two of each and washed them all down with water.

He was ill?

What the hell was going on? I didn't know he was ILL?

Suddenly, all the hate I had for him fizzled out like a flickering candle.

He was being bullied and taunted by Persona about something that happened before the crash and he was sent away AND he was ill.

And what was this whole business about life shortening?

Was his alice one of those life-shortening alices?

A coughing fit overtook him and his whole body shook violently with each cough.

He breathed heavily and fell back onto his bed.

There was a moment of calm that washed over him. Then he reached into his pockets and held up a pendant, similar to mine and examined it.

I couldn't see much in the dark light, but it glistened in the moonlight and spun around.

The colour was... red? Orange? Brown?

I had never come across a person who had orange alice stones except me.

Maybe I was reading too deep into this.

Like I gave him my alice stone.

Pffft.

It must have been an amber stone or something.

My careful balance that I had miraculously kept throughout this whole time collapsed.

I found myself waving my arms around like a spaz, trying to cling onto mydear, dear life.

I finally grabbed onto the door frame to regain balance.

Well, grabbed is a bit of an understatement.

I smacked my hands onto the frame.

His head snapped towards the door.

'Who's that,' he asked darkly.

He slowly got up and walked towards me, shoving the pendant into his pocket once again.

I rethought this situation through.

Yeah, he probably wouldn't be too happy about the fact that I listened into his conversation.

I straightened myself up and knocked on the door.

The door swung open and I found myself staring at Hyuuga's chest.

'What?' He asked, irritated.

'Er… Ermmm.. I.. err…' What was WRONG WITH ME? I couldn't form my sentences.

'What is it, little girl? Couldn't pass two hours without me?'

Wow, did I say anything about hatred vanishing?  
>I LIE.<p>

'No, you arrogant jerk, Yuu's making a toast so I had to come and get you.'

'Oh really?' He smirked, 'Cuz it definitely didn't seem like just that by the way you were stammering,'

I looked up crossly at him.

'No, I said, Yuu's making a toast. Now hurry up.' I replied.

'Jerk,' I said under my breath.

Handsome as he was, he had a shit personality. He reached for his suit jacket and turned his light off.

'Are we going? Or are you going to continue to stare at me?'

I flushed, and then saw his mocking face.

'No, we're going.'

I turned quickly, but not before I saw… a genuine smile grace upon his handsome face.

WHAT? A SMILE?

I turned to him as quickly as I turned away and re-inspected his face.

The smile had gone.

Maybe it was my imagination…

'Yes, Polka? Is my face too beautiful for you?' he smirked again.

ARGHHHH!

'No, too ugly more like.' I retorted and hurried to the elevator.

The awkward silence was just… too much to bear.

I looked up and silently studied his profile.

Crimson eyes, pretty nose, full lips and earrings.

A cartilage piercing that was all too familiar.

'Oh… by the way, I still have the jumper you gave me from the other day…'

'Hn.'

'Do….. You….. want it back?'

'Whatever, I don't want some smelly jumper that's been on you,'

'I do not smell, and as a matter of fact, I've washed it.'

I don't need it.'

'Fine!'

'Fine,'

'FINE!'

'Hn,'

'… Thanks again, for the other day,' I had to get it out.

'Hn,'

'Does you vocabulary only consist of different grunts?'

'I guess so,'

I sighed, exasperated.

Just in time, the ping of the elevator echoed in the elevator. We walked back to the hall in silence although my mind was buzzing with questions I wanted to ask him.

That could come later, maybe when he decided I was worth talking to.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

After Yuu's speech, the party was still alive.

Feeling tired and even more drunk than usual, I retired to my room.

I changed out of my miniscule dress and let my hair down. I was just waltzing around my room in my vest and shorts when I saw a familiar pair of legs swinging from my branch.

Since I was feeling a bit better and a little bored, I made my way down to the Sakura tree and sat underneath the tree.

The cool breeze ran over me.

I called up at the person who took my branch.

'Are you there?'

'Ye…'

'Why are you not at the party?'

'I was feeling a bit bored and sick,'

'Same,' I replied.

We stayed there in comfortable silence.

He had a sort of calming influence on me.

I had a little déjà vu whilst lying there looking up at the night sky, but in my memory, I had someone warm behind me, hugging me tight from behind.

A boy?

His soft voice echoed in my mind,

'_See that star? That's my favourite, it's the North Star. It always stays the same throughout the ages…' he said._

'_What? So? I don't care what your favourite star is,' I laughed, 'but I better be your favourite person,'_

'_It's like you, silly girl, always unchanging.'_

'_Is that a good thing or a bad thing…'_

'_It's a good thing, stupid,' _

'_Oh, then that's really cheesy,'_

'_Fine then, see if I ever say something nice about you, you little-'_

'_But thank you,' I said. I could imagine the boy smiling softly. He tightened his hug around me._

'_I love you,' he said._

Was this a memory?

My head started to hurt like a bitch, and it was throbbing painfully.

The doctor said that things could trigger off fragments of my memory.

In any case, that was a nice memory, if it was one.

But I'm sorry, whoever you were.

I've changed, and I don't think I can ever get my old self back.

I closed my eyes to stop unwanted tears from spilling, especially if the tree-jerk could see me.

'I'm going to bed now, hope you use the branch well,' I said to him.

'Hn,' he grunted and I left without a word.

I washed my hands and feet and brushed my teeth in one swift motion, and resigned to my cushiony bed, which welcomed me and my huge headache.

Just before I got into my bed, I looked out of the window once more. I could still see some movement, if any, made by the mysterious boy on my branch.

I left my window open a little, it was a warm night.

Sleep embraced me with wide arms despite my headache.

.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

Natsume watched her from afar.

He was sorry that she was suffering from amnesia because of him.

But he was stronger now, and she would never have to suffer because of him again.

Never again, he promised himself.

He smiled to himself as he remembered the countless times he and Mikan had relaxed by the Sakura tree.

That was another thing that had not changed about her.

Dammit this was going to be hard; he couldn't fall in love with her again.

Or vice versa. More the other way.

He couldn't forget her, never in a million years.

But she could.

She already had.

He was going to keep it that way.

Releasing a burdened sigh, he enjoyed the last few eventless nights of his school life.

.

* * *

><p>.<p>

'_WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? IT'S NOT ME THEY WANT, IT'S YOU!' _

_The cartilage piercing gleamed again. The dragon pattern that was embossed imprinted on my mind. _

'_I WON'T LEAVE YOU,' _

'_MIKAN, GO AWAY' _

_I took a fully loaded blow to my stomach once more. The same man came up from behind me._

_The baseball club._

_I couldn't do anything to help him. Again._

_Pain._

_Red._

_._

_White._

_._

_My eyes opened again, I blinked a couple of times. _

_Gold earrings, dragon embossing._

'_Natsume, where are we?'_

'_Shhh, sleep.'_

_._

_._

_._

Natsume?

* * *

><p>.<p>

~8~8~8~8~8~8~

.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5<strong>

**Tip-toeing**

.

I went to my Sakura Tree again. I had a lot on my mind.

And guess who I found. Hyuuga-jerk-face. Wow. That was annoying.

.

'WHAT IS YOU'RE PROBLEM?'

'You. You are my problem. Stop trying to be friends with me already.'

'What? Are you kiddi-'

'You're annoying.'

.

* * *

><p><strong>Can you even see the north star from Japan?<strong>

**You… can right?**

**Whatever, this is only a fic, guys, lets just say you can.**

**Anyway, I apologise again for the stupidly late update, and I have like… 16 exams starting on the 10****th**** May, I needa revise get back to revising now! AHHHH!**

**Hope you enjoyed.**

**.  
><strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**.  
><strong>

**ACTUALLY REVIEW, PEOPLE!**

**REVIEW!  
><strong>

**.  
><strong>

**À Bientôt!**


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